Union activist: organizing drive spurs contract gains

>Archive - PWW Print Edition Archive - 2007 Editions - Oct. 27, 2007


 

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — “Our members are thrilled. For the first time in years we pulled off a victory.” Ray Milici, veteran of 40-plus years working at Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH), was reflecting on the significance of the August contract settlement between the hospital and the 150 dietary workers represented by 1199/SEIU.

Efforts by the rest of the 2,000 service, maintenance and clerical workers to win union recognition were stalled last year. In a ruling released Oct. 23, an arbitrator found management in violation of labor law and an election conduct agreement. She ordered YNHH to pay over $2 million in damages to the union, plus about $1,200 to each worker.

When the dietary workers’ contract expired last January, and workers continued on the job during negotiations.

“It was a major victory that the hospital did not try to break the union or force us to accept language in the contract that would have made us look weak,” Milici said. He explained that the organizing drive and the widespread community support it generated played an important part in winning a good contract for the dietary workers.

“We actually got the best contract in years. It all revolves around the organizing drive — the amount of trouble the hospital was in with the community over [the hospital’s] violations of the Community Benefits Agreement, all the bribes they gave to workers in other departments to sway them from voting for the union — all that ended up with us getting a reasonably good contract.

“Not that they handed us anything,” Milici continued. He explained that the determination of the dietary unit’s members, who showed up in large numbers at the open negotiating sessions, played an important role.

During the organizing drive at the rest of the hospital, wages were raised in other departments as management maneuvered to undercut the union. “Now we’re caught up,” says Milici. Between performance bonuses and across-the-board increases, most workers’ raises are between 7 percent and 9 percent.

Milici emphasizes that the future of the dietary workers is tied to the success of the union in the rest of the hospital.

“We’re not kidding ourselves,” he said. “It all revolves around the organizing drive. Because of our existence, we have won this much for all the workers. When we’re finally 2,000 strong, just imagine what we’ll get.”

pbp @peoplebeforeprofits.net